Hughes inherits Spa race 1 pole following Barnicoat penalty

Jake Hughes will start race one of the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 Series event at Spa-Francorchamps from pole position after Ben Barnicoat took his penalty carried over from Motorland Aragon.

Barnicoat set the quickest time of the session for his Fortec Motorsports team, but due to an avoidable contact penalty from Spain, he will drop four places on the grid and will start fifth.

Hughes, driving for Koiranen GP, will therefore move up into the pole position spot for the first time in his Eurocup career having been fastest in his group during qualifying.

Group A was led by Barnicoat, who posted a time of 2m16.645s, with Ukyo Sasahara of the ART Junior Team second ahead of Anthoine Hubert of Tech 1 Racing.

The current championship leader Louis Deletraz was fourth quickest in Group A for Josef Kaufmann Racing and will therefore start seventh on the grid for race 1. Ignazio D’Agosto of Manor MP Motorsport was fifth fastest and will start ninth.

Group B was led by Hughes, with a best time of 2m16.747s, with his Koiranen GP team-mate Jack Aitken second quickest ahead of Fortec Motorsports’ Callan O’Keeffe.

Kevin Jörg of Josef Kaufmann Racing was fourth quickest, meaning he will line-up alongside his team-mate Deletraz on the grid, while JD Motorsport’s Matevos Isaakyan was fifth fastest and completes the top ten on the thirty-four car grid.